Vegan Peppermint Mocha Cake
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Vegan Peppermint Mocha Cake – With a moist, peppermint and coffee infused chocolate cake, to die for peppermint frosting and crushed candy canes! The perfect cake for Christmas.
This Vegan Peppermint Mocha Cake tastes like a peppermint mocha in cake form! If you’ve made my Best Vegan Chocolate Cake, you will be happy to hear this cake is very similar.
Instead of adding hot water, I subbed hot coffee plus a little peppermint extract. The incredibly delicious frosting is a version of my Vegan Vanilla Frosting recipe, with peppermint extract added.
Sprinkle some crushed candy canes on top and you are ready to celebrate!
Want more vegan cake recipes?
- Vegan Vanilla Cake
- Vegan Chocolate Cake
- Vegan Red Velvet Cake
- Vegan Carrot Cake
- Vegan Lemon Cake
- Vegan Strawberry Cake
This post contains affiliate links. Read my full disclosure here.
Vegan Peppermint Mocha Cake
Ingredients
The Cake
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk (or soy)
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup dark cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 2/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
- 1 cup hot coffee
Peppermint Frosting
- 1 cup vegan butter, softened to room temperature
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 2-3 tablespoons almond or soy milk
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
- 1/4-1/2 cup crushed candy canes
Instructions
For the Chocolate Cake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease two 8-inch cake pans. I also line them with parchment rounds for easy removal of the cakes later.
- Measure 1 cup unsweetened almond milk and add the tablespoon of vinegar to it. Stir slightly and set aside to curdle.
- In a large bowl, add the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk well to combine.
- Now add the oil, applesauce, vanilla, peppermint and almond milk/vinegar mixture. Mix on medium speed with a hand mixer until well combined.
- Lower the speed and carefully pour in the hot coffee, continuing to mix into the cake batter until combined. The batter will seem very runny at this point; that is how it should be, trust me!
- Divide the batter evenly between your cake pans. Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. After 10 minutes of cooling in the pan, carefully remove the cakes from the pans and let cool completely before frosting.
For the Frosting & Decorating
- In a large bowl, beat the vegan butter with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add the powdered sugar, about 1/2 cup at a time, until all the powdered sugar is mixed in.
- With the mixer on low-medium speed, add the non-dairy milk, 1 tablespoon at a time. Add the vanilla and peppermint as well, and increase the speed to high. Beat for about 30 seconds, until light and fluffy.
- If the frosting seems too thick, you can add more non-dairy milk, 1 tablespoon at a time. If the frosting is too thin and runny, simply add more powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time until the desired consistency is reached.
- Frost the cake and decorate with crushed candy canes as desired. I like to put a sprinkle of crushed candy canes in the middle layer of the cake as well. Enjoy!
Notes
- I recommend using dark cocoa powder, such as Hershey's Special Dark if you can, it makes the cake darker and so pretty. But regular cocoa powder will work as well, your cake will just be lighter in color.
- I used Earth Balance brand of vegan butter. I prefer the sticks, but the tub will work. You could also use another brand such as Melt, Miyokos or even vegetable shortening if you can't find vegan butter.
- I found crushed candy canes in the bulk section at my local store, but you can crush them yourself using a ziplock bag and something heavy, like a cup. Just pound away until you have little candy cane pieces.
Nutrition
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92 Comments on “Vegan Peppermint Mocha Cake”
Hi Nora,
I was looking for a cake recipe with a zing to cut the boredom of the usual flavors and was attracted to your mocha peppermint twist. My problem is I don’t have hershey’s special dark. This is not available in our place. The option for a regular cocoa powder might not give that dark chocolate pull the earlier reviews meant. Instead I have TABLEA (ground pure cacao not in powder form). How will I make the shift?
Reading the reviews I am so thrilled to make this for my nephew’s double celebration of his birthday and for recently passing a licensure examination. So I can not afford to fail. Please help us make this more eventful with the cake as the focal part. God bless your talent!!! Take care…
Hi Maita! The cocoa does not have to be Hershey’s brand, but any brand of dark cocoa, also called dutch processed cocoa, is best here. Regular cocoa powder does work but the cake won’t be as dark. I’m honestly not sure about the ground pure cocoa not in powder form, I don’t think that would work though since you say it’s not a powder. It’s hard for me to know what will happen without testing it myself, sorry!
This cake was PERFECT! I used water instead of coffee as offered in the directions, and the cake was still amazing and full of flavor.
My 2 year old son asked Santa for a cake for Christmas and he was so freaking excited haha!
Thank you for the recipe! We cook so much from your blog – even made your baked cinnamon sugar donuts for Christmas morning.
Hi Christine. Sounds like a fun time! Thank you for using my recipes, and for your wonderful comments!
Made this on the 23rd for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dessert. This year being bizarre, with no food-sharing allowed, this was pretty much a test run for this cake. This cake is INCREDIBLE. It is moist and chocolatey and minty. The frosting is heavenly. This will be an annual Christmas cake. Just a heads up, the candy cane pieces melt after a day, so if made ahead for a party, best to put the candies on the day of serving.
Question: do you refrigerate this?
Hi there! I’m so glad you liked the cake! My candy cane pieces didn’t melt, so maybe it depends on the brand? There is no need to refrigerate the cake, but sometimes I do because I love how it tastes cold for some reason. 🙂 Refrigerating it will also help it last just a little longer as well. But if it will be eaten within 2-3 days, room temperature is fine.
Amazing recipe! I subbed vegan yogurt (Liberte vanilla yogurt) for the applesauce 🙂 The cake is the perfect texture, I will be saving this as a base for future cake recipes. I didn’t quite get the mocha, but maybe I needed to use stronger coffee. The chocolateyness of the cake balances the sweet icing perfectly and the peppermint really comes through. My husband and I both really enjoyed this!
Hi Dita! I’m happy you enjoyed the cake, and good to know yogurt worked instead of applesauce. Try stronger coffee next time for sure! You could even add a little coffee extract for more flavor. Thank you!
I made 2 incredibly mild modifications. 1- I had to use regular cocoa powder. 2. I realllllly like peppermint- so I added an extra tap to the batter and to the frosting.
This was so so so so so good.
I made it EXACTLY as it is written. Exactly. And it did not disappoint. Now- we had a white Christmas. So although it was freezing- I still had to put this cake in the fridge after I frosted it as the frosting was losing it’s integrity.
But it didn’t get hard in the fridge. Or dry. This cake was ridiculous. I’m this has got to be my favorite cake.
Hi Savanna! I’m so glad you loved the cake. It’s my kid’s favorite cake now, too!
I haven’t tried it yet because I JUST made it, but I followed the recipe exactly and the cakes came out absolutely perfect. Soft and bouncy but not falling apart. The icing is delicious.
Forgot to add the rating. Sorry!
Thank you so much!
Nora, this cake was absolutely amazing. Can you give me suggestions on baking time if I were to make them into cupcakes ?! Thank you in advance and Merry Christmas 🎄
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed the cake. For cupcakes, bake them for 20-24 minutes, until done in the middle. Merry Christmas!
I made this tonight, but not sure where I went wrong, any advice will be helpful as the sponge I ended up with did have potential. but I found that after 45mins in the oven the toothpick was still coming out wet…. fast forward to 1 hour and 20 mins later and I was still in the same predicament. Any ideas? the edges started to go solid
This is no reflection on your recipe Nora (because yours looks absolutely divine) and the batter tasted delicious, I’ve gone wrong somewhere and would like to make another attempt until I nail it.
Any advice would be grand 🙂
Oh Nora! First of all, my husband and I are fans of your recipes. From the gravy, chocolate cake, sour cream to the pot pie (which we are making tomorrow!) your recipes are always a success! We just made this cake today! We had a slice and I said to myself, “okay, it’s time to leave a review!” This cake is absolutely delicious. We followed it step by step and as usual, it turned out perfect. Just want to say thank you for your recipes. We don’t have much sugar or desserts unless it’s for holidays or special occasions and I just go straight to your recipes because they are amazing. Thank you again for this recipe, Nora! It made my heart so happy!
You’re so welcome! Thanks for the comment!
Can the coffee be optional?
Yes, you can use hot boiling water instead. Thanks!
Can this be made with gluten free flour?
I think a gluten free mix would work quite well.
I have a dairy free friend and this looked really amazing. I’m new to baking and had never made anything alternatively before so the whole process had me really hoping I was doing the right thing. Just follow the instructions exactly as written and everything will be perfect. I made cupcakes and they came out great. The liners got quite oily but its really not a big deal, just something to be aware of if you are giving them as gifts. I bought mini candy canes, crushed them up, put them on top and then put a candy cane sticking out the side. They look like little hot cocoas!!! I’m now planning to make this with my leftover ingredients for my sister for Christmas. We aren’t vegan, it’s just that good! Thank you so much Nora!!!
You’re so welcome!
If I wanted to make these into cupcakes about how long do they need to bake for?
18-22 minutes should do it.
Any substitutions for canola oil? Looking forward to making this.
Another neutral flavored oil is fine to use here, like avocado oil, melted coconut oil (refined for no coconut taste) or melted vegan butter. Hope you enjoy it!
Does anyone have any recommendations on how to make this recipe in 3 6″ cake pans instead? Looks so yummy!
You can totally do that, just split the cake batter between the three pans, they might need a little less time in the oven, they are done when a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Thanks!
Great, thank you! Excited to make this soon 🙂
This cake was stunning. I followed the recipe other than subbing hot water and a teaspoon of espresso powder instead of the hot coffee. I baked for 45 minutes in 8” rounds but opened the oven a couple times to turn the cakes. There was a lot of rise- I had the pans maybe 2/3 full with batter and the finished cakes rose to the top (they did fall a bit in the middle while cooling).
These cakes were perfectly balanced between airy and dense, just the right cake mouthfeel that is neither too dry nor too close-textured. The cake wasn’t overly sweet, the peppermint frosting added a lot of sweetness. My kids had a great time crushing the candy canes for the topping.
I had to use more mint extract than recommended in recipe (more like 3-4 teaspoons instead of 1/2 teaspoon) but I quite like mint and made a large batch of frosting. I used earth balance soy-free in the tub as my vegan butter for the frosting.
I made this for my December-born daughter’s birthday and it was a huge hit. I couldn’t stop gobbling the trimmings from leveling the cake. Seriously this was so, so good, perhaps the best cake I’ve ever made or even eaten.
I think the next time I make this cake, coloring the frosting a pale pink would be very chic with the red and white candy cane dusting.
Any apple sauce replacements?
I made this cake yesterday for my husband’s birthday and it was a huge hit! The cake is so moist and delicious. It does need to be refrigerated so that the frosting doesn’t melt, but that’s no problem. Thank you for this recipe. I will definitely be making it again in the future.
That’s great to hear!
Hello! Would this recipe work in cupcake or mini cupcake pans? If so, do you have a recommendation for cook time and/or any required adjustments? The recipe looks delicious, thanks in advance!
Oops, my apologies, I just saw that you already answered this question below – thank you!